Over the years I have tired EVERY way imaginable to heat the plane. I could tell you many stories of flying in cold weather. It is really a horrible environment to fly in. Gloves, hat, jacket, sweat pants or a snowmobile suite. It is so cold at altitude. ITS CRAZY that ytou can buy a cheap car with better heat than our planes.

Over the years:
I tried improving the plans exhaust heat system with additional contact area on the exhaust pipes and a fan. Worthless
I tied an electric heater. Drew 40 amps. Worthless
I tired a high pressure, recirculation air system. Fair

Engine oil pressure->external vernatherm->heater->engine return It uses a fan to blow air through the core.

This system worked ok. I had to duct the hot air to the pilot. I could keep the plane comfortable to about 20 def F OAT. At 15 deg F, OAT the plane was drown right cold due to the air leaks. Also I did NOT like the thought of high pressure oil in the cabin and the potential of a uncontrolled oil leak.

When I rebuilt my LongEZ, The driving factor for cutting off the nose was that, well I HATED IT, and the decision to incorporate a ram air opening and couple it with a heater using an oil pump to move the oil. I call it Low Pressure RAM Air heat. Using a ram air opening, i raise the cabin pressure to eliminate air leaks and additionally provides method of heating the incoming air without a fan. Simple and safe.

The air inlet on the nose of my EZ supplies both the heater and cold air supply vents for the dash. You can see some of the nose build process in my blog.

The LP RAM Heat concepts works exceptionally well. I can fly in any weather with no air leaks and in the coldest weather with jeans and light shirt. No air leaks, no fogging of the canopy. The coldest I have flown in is 0 deg F and I was still getting 110 deg F out of the heater. What I love is flying on a chilly day, like 45 def F. Turn on the system and supply just enough heat to be comfortable since the heat out put is adjustable. I love flying in cold weather now.

Note: Generally I measured a delta T across the cooler around 100+ def F. The temp of the oil supply from the engine at the heater is typically at 145 deg F.

I’ll be detailing the installation of RAM heat in my Cozy next.

Ram Heat? What is it??

The discovery which started the process of Ram Heat began while flying home from Jacksonville, FL. It was raining, and naturally, I was getting little drips of water coming into the plane from leaks. The ones coming down the dash was especially annoying. Normally I just had air leaks, but in the rain its water leaks.

While watching the access door, to my amazement, I saw the water bubbling up from a tiny crack. Why? What as happening?

Eventually I connected an ASI to the static system of the plane an measure a -55 mph of air pressure in the cabin. If I opened the belly light, (which works exactly like a cow flap) I could increase the NEGATIVE cabin pressure all the way down to -120 mph!

YIKES, this the reason I have air and water leaks in the cabin. Its because the cabin is constantly at a negative pressure relative to the outside air.

Which leads to the question… Where does the negative pressure come from? I tired closing off and tapping ever opening I could in the plane with the exception of the GU torque tubes openings and the canopy. Up for a test flight, and guess what..? Still -50 mph pressure.

HUM, the problem must be the GU torque tube openings which are HUGE.

Back to the shop and I fabricated a set of offset GU torque tubes (you and see them and how to make a set at the website). I believe it is the first set ever made. Installed them, took the plane up for testing and the plane had not changed. Still -50 mph.

NOTE: I have come to believe that the cause of the low pressure is the 150 mph air flowing across the transverse opening in the plane, like turtle back or the front of the canopy. Just like blowing air across a soda straw. It creates a vacuum.

Solution 1. Because I was mainly interested in stopping the flow of rain water into the plane at that time (I used to travel a lot of rainy IFR), I knew I had to raise the cabin pressure. If the pressure is higher that static, then air would be pushed out of cabin and water could not enter.

I made an alternate air inlet door on the ram air duct of the engine (it was easy and convenient to do). In the rain, I would open the door, to allow air to be pushed into the cabin from the air inlet. It worked ver well to raise the cabin pressure cabin which completely stopped the entry of water. I could actually feel the air reversing from the eyeball vents. The major problem for this design is that it was VERY LOUD (from the engine breathing pulses) and I could only use it in the rain.

Conrolling cabin air pressure is essential in the plane. if your vent blows air into the cabin, you have a negative cabin pressure. Negative pressure means air and water leaks because your sucking it into the plane. The only realy way to stop air leaks is to raise the cabin pressure to positive.

Today’s project was church, flying and construction of my WVO heater.   

It is getting cold in Charleston, and the WVO does not filter when the temperature gets below 80 f or so.  The fats in the oil coat the inside of the filter bag and flow drops to almost nothing.

Since we do not have 220v electricity in the storage shed, I decided to go with a propane heat.  Most of this project is made out of junk I had around the house.  The old crab cooker was sitting unused in the shed, the handles are made out of an old bed frame, bolt were from my drawer, the cover from some extra flashing.   

 The only thing of value was the soft 3/8″  copper tubing I had to buy for the heater coil.

This is it.  I’ll take it over to Gerhart’s tomorrow and try it out.

Sadly, today I am starting to market my plane. I have already had a few calls from interested buyers for Cloud Dancer. I have decided to put all the pictures here with details on the plane to highlight all the features and special additions to the plane. A few years ago I rebuilt and restored the plane which you can view on this blog starting here: Start of rebuilding N29TM

After being in this sport for 25+ years I really dont think there is a finer EZ out there and none with the ‘one of a kind’ features and additions I have added to the plane. I hate selling it, but I have a Cozy 4 project almost completed and its time to move on to a new plane.

Baggage pods are included.

The Nose compartment where I usually carry tie down equipment, a tool bag and my travel cover. There is a placard for canard removal. All pitot and static tube is color coded. Red, pitot and yellow is the static system.

A warning placard which tells the pilot the nose MUST have enough ballast in its to stay on the ground when the plane is level. You will then be within the CG envelope.

The compartment has bulkheads fore and aft to prevent interference with the control system. On the right you can see the Ram Heat system heater. I have a lot of information about concept of Ram Heat that I
developed on this blog, Here is an additional article I wrote for CSA about Ram Heat: Ram Heat Article

The compartment can actually quite a bit of stuff, as long as you stay within the CG range.

This is what I usually have in the compartment.

The Ram Air Heat inlet has a cover which attaches to the pitot tube when parked outside.

Nose gear doors.

The seals for the canopy are in a molded track using LongEZ V seals. They seal the canopy with ZERO air leaks and no forced compression.

The canopy is secured by a rotary latch system.

The key for the canopy.

The fuse panel is located under the pilots seat for easy access. I have not had a fuse blow since I wired the system .

All fuses in the essential and non-essential buss are labeled.

Heater control to close the air door of the heater air outlet when initially taking off on a cold day. After your engine oil heats up, turn on the pump, open the heat door for cabin heat.

Side panel for additional storage of a few items.

LED lighting (white or red) on a dimmer control for the pilot. 12 v outlet (switched).

Two usb outlets are available for the pilot. I have it set up for 2 Apple Lightening connectors to keep my iPad and iPhone charged in flight when using ForeFlight.

Ball mounts are located on the port and stbd sides. Each one has a 1/8” connector wired to the Comm panel for music input. This side mount has a BNC connection to a GPS antenna when I use my Garmin 496 attached to the mount..

Notice on the panel the Oil Heat Sys pump switch and below the switch is the Recirc Fan switch, which allows the pilot to turn on the rear heat fan in fast speed select the “Passenger control” of the fan which allows the passenger adjust the temperate in the rear off the plane.

Port ball mount with stereo plug input

I hate looking at footwells and seeing LOTS of wires. It makes the plane look so unfinished.

On the port side there is a fixed wire chase to hide the wires

On the STBD side the wiring chase has a removable cover for the wires. Antenna wires are separated to prevent cross talk.

Along with controlling the heater pump speed (which controls the temp of the heater output) there is a seat heaters in the cushions (Pilot and passenger). I rarely use it as it quickly heats your butt up and normal only use it for a little while to warm up the comfort foam seats on a cold morning..

The Dash

Dual air outlets coupled to the COLD side of the Ram Air inlet. They are very quiet in flight. I like cold air on my face when my legs and body is warm to keep me awake.
Dual Grand Rapids 6” HX displays.
Garmin SL-30
Trio Pro-Pilot Autopilot coupled to the displays via ARINC 429, or you can run it independently
Garmin 327 Transponder
NavWorx ADS-B IN and OUT
PS Engineering audio panel
The Garmin navigator allows for full IFR flying. You can do coupled to the autopilot via GPS, ILS or VOR approaches.
Wilhelmson nose lift with automatic extensions (the AEX option).
Electric belly board.
Bird beeper.
Dual USP inputs for each EFIS to allow for a mapping USB stick input for Seattle Avionics mapping data to be input to the EFIS’s.
ACK Dual frequency ELT. It transmits on 406 MHz and 121.5 MHz frequencies and provides position accuracy with the optional GPS input connected to the Garmin radio.

Picture of the dash while doing a coupled GPS approach into my local airport.

The head rest has the hour meter, speaker and a level to to be sure you you dont flip the plane when parking on a non-level surface and for accurate fueling indications.

There is an additional cover the rear stick to prevent interference of the control system when packing out the back of the plane. You can also see rear strake windows.

The stick cover is removable and the pin is used to secure the control stick when needed.

Stick installed and wired into the Comm PPT system.

When not in use the control stick is stored in a foot rest compartment for the passenger. It utilizes the space effectively and is more comfortable for the passengers feet.

The passenger has side panel installed on the port and STBD sides to cover the control system. There another USB outlet on the port side panel. You can see the ball mount for the rear passenger to mount an IPAD or other device.

This is how I keep track of key dates I need to be reminded of.

Passenger panel for music input, lighting control, headphones.

Rear heat control for the fan and seats.

ELT Battery replacement reminder.

The rear headrest covers the electronic bay.

Behind the head rest cover is the Odyssey PL680 Battery, GRT 4000 engine monitor, starter solenoid, MAP sensor, fuses, Princeton fuel level capacitance modules.

The spar box is also used for additional storage.

The business end… The prop is a Gary Hertzler Silver Bullet which has be dynamically balanced with the ACES balancer. I have a ring on the prop to allow for easy attachments of weights.

IO-320 with AirFlow Performance fuel injection. 9.1 compression pistons, port and polished cylinders. Dual PMags (114 series). Fuel flow (injectors) have been balanced to allow aggressive lean of peak operation.
Cylinder cool very well.

Additionally, there is a Reiff engine pre-heat system installed. Reiff Website It heats both the engine oil and the cylinders with the 50 watt band heaters. If you have electric in the hangar, you can preheat the engine on a timer so when you arrive at the hangar on the coldest winter day, the engine oil and cylinders are hot. You can go to full power immediately after startup.

With preheated oil, you’ll get cabin heat from the Ram Heat system as soon as you get in the air. I usually preheat the engine before a flight. When I arrive at the hangar the engine oil is already at 115f, cylinders are at 140f. After engine start, on taxi, I close the ram heat door, turn on the seat heaters to warm up, and turn on the oil pump. When the oil temp indicator at the heater starts to increase, I open up the ram heat door, and turn off the heater. It only takes 1 or 2 minutes. I love having cabin heat before i leave the pattern.

The cowl has cam lock fasteners and no screws. This is the oil cooler outlet. My oil runs a 175f all the time. I never see it any higher.

Bruces LongEZ travel cover.

I had Bruces modify it with additional straps (which are essential) to keep it pulled forward when you cinch up the back of the cover on the trail edge of the wings.

Performance

A screen shot at 13000 ft. TAS 162 kts @2460 rpm, OAT 40f, 6.2 gph. Cylinders running between 325-354f

Lean of Peak Operation

8000 ft. TAS 165 kts @2490 rpm, OAT 54f, 6.4 gph, Cylinder 325-347f.

The is an enlargement of the Stbd EFIS panel above. You can see the engine is operating at an amazing 122-141 f Lean Of Peak operation while still cruising at 165 kts. This indicates exceptional well balanced fuel injector restrictors. Who needs GAMInjectors?

Cabin heat

A shot of the heat system in operation while flying home from PA. OAT 8 deg F, Temp1 is the temperature of the oil supply (129f). Temp2 is the air temp of the air exiting the heater (110f). Temp3 is the temp of the rear seat area. This data indicates there is a 102f temp differential across the cooler (OAT@8f- Temp2@110f).

Obviously, I was very comfortable at 8f on this flight with no jacket, gloves or wearing no special cold weather gear. i was wearing a long sleeve shirt and jeans. The plane had zero air leaks around the canopy and no fogging of the canopy since the cabin is being flooded with hot dry air. This is the advantage of Ram Heat.

Canard Fences

Here you can see the canard fences I developed and tested. I have been using these on the plane for over 7 years and they really increase the plane’s ability to handle of cross wind landings with canard aircraft by essentially increasing the effectiveness of the rudders. Fences increase lift on the canard while also allowing the plane to easily take off in heavy cross winds without scalping. I am the only canard that I know of that has them installed and will have them on any canard that I own in the future..

I gave a presentation at the Rough River Fly-in which discusses the benefits of canard fences on how and why they work. adfgsdfg

Today I started my living room renovation.

When I moved up from a low resolution 52” standard definition TV to a HDTV the Home Theater websites I consulted recommended a distance of 8.5-11 ft away from HDTV. I then came up with the idea of shortening the LR to move the TV closer to the viewer.

So I temporarily shortened the living room to see how I would like it. Then I put up a bunch of sheets from Walmart to make a curtain and located all the equipment is behind the sheets and found I REALLY liked the viewing distance and didn’t miss the size of the room at all.

With a lot of extra space behind the curtain, I made the decision to enlarge my bedroom close. Seemed like a no brainer.

My GOAL with this project is to have a built in entertainment center, and a MASSIVE closet I could just about live in. I’ll never come out of the closet and announce my….. completion.

It will be 7 x 32 feet with lots of built in drawers, cubby holes, make-up disk for a woman, and a dressing area. When I sell the house it will make a huge impact on the wives who looks at it.

A lot of work, but I am tired of my cramped closet.

This is the other side of the wall.

The LR before the start of the work. One of my favorite rooms. Clean and not busy.

After the wall removal, this is how much more space I have to work with.l.

Curtain is down, Framing of the new wall is started. Finally, I am on my way.

Today started out thinking about my engine vibration issue while lying in bed. What could be causing it?

I have investigated everything I could think of during the last 2 months searching for an answer to a problem no one but me would notice.

I recalled starting the engine on Sunday and it seemed to have stared running smoothly, then a few moments later I noticed the sound had changed a bit. A sort of popping sound. Very light pop or harshness to the exhaust , but different then what I remember. Hum, this sound be could it be valve related? Recently I was thinking the sound had changed a bit from what I think is normal. Instead of a smooth sound it sounded like it had an exhaust leak or something (of coarse it doesn’t). What if the valves were not properly opening/closing at the proper time? Is it related to the heat up of the oil affecting it somehow?

The only components which would affect compressions (and thus the power pulses) would be a broken ring (doubtful), something particle trapped under a valve seat or a hydraulic lifter. The lifters use oil pressure to expand a tiny hydraulic cylinder which is used to “self adjust” the valve clearances. It is a much better system than I had with my old Lycoming 0-235 where periodically I would have to manual adjust the valves. Theoretically, the valves will never need to be adjusted and always be perfectly set. Think of the old days when you had to get your brakes adjusted on your car and now they are self adjusting.

Todays goals were to

First, remove my PMag electronic ignition and ship it back to the EMag Air for upgrade and testing to rule any possible ignitions issues out of my trouble shooting efforts. Brad will make sure they have the latest software and upgrades done on the PMag while the plane is down. I ordered new wires to replace my spark plug leads and a coil too.

Second was to remove all the lifters and carefully check them out according to the information I found on the web.

It is not hard to remove the lifters and only took a few hours. While cleaning them, I noticed #2 exhaust lifter was very sticky as compared to the others. All the other lifters have a smooth in/out and in rotation action and fit snug but not tightly.

#2 was sticky and tight going in and when rotated felt gritty or when a bearing hangs up when rotated. Strangely #2 cylinder is the same one I replaced due to scoring on the inside cylinder walls. Could it be related or did the lifter decide to score itself in sympathy with the cylinder? Doesn’t matter because the cylinder is gone and this little puppy will be gone too. I finish carefully examining the rest of the lifters and order any new ones I need tomorrow.

I also tested them for a “collapsed” lifter and all was good.

Thinking about it, a bad lifter does make some sort of perverse sense. If it is sticking it could respond to weird stimuli such as pressures or if the oil temperature is hot or cold causing it could hang up and work or not. Sticking would not affect my compression or engine power (to a great extent) but would affect when the valves opens or closes. The popping sound could be the valve opening at the wrong time (too soon or too late) in relation to the other cylinders.

Too bad it will be a while before I can test the plane again. I have to wait for my new lifter, an my ignition upgrade to arrive before I can assemble everything to fly again. Fortunately, both should both arrive about the same time.

While waiting for parts, I plan to start installing my fuel probe system in the plane in preparation for the arrival of the programable fuel gauge. It will be so nice to have an accurate readout on the dash of fuel levels.

After leaving Oshkosh this year and starting my trip, Lee and I flew to Denver together (flight of 2). The first leg ended up being longer than expected due to some bad weather and I started becoming concerned about the fuel level. Naturally some the junk in the back of the seat fell in front of my stbd fuel sight glass. Crap, I could just see the level before it dropped below my stuff. So I timed my tank based on usage to switch to the port side at the last minute and decided on a “gotta land point”. Naturally, everything was fine, but I decided then and there, this is the last trip I’ll fly without dashboard fuel readouts.

The whole reason I invented the probe and worked with Princeton Electronics who developed the electronics was to see the fuel level in MY plane and I don’t have them installed yet. Finally, I’ll have the fuel readouts I have dreamed of for so many years.

This morning was a FREAKEN early morning wake call.  3:15 am Yikes!

My flight was set for an early 6:05 am loading, so I wanted to be sure to  get to the airport at least 1.5 hrs earlier to allow for returning the rental car, a bus ride, TSA screening, eat a nice breakfast before wheels up.

After leaving the hotel at 3:45 I found NO restaurants were open!   What???   The hotel is 2 miles from the airport with all the hotels crammed together.   The only place with 24 hr open was a Hardees and when I asked for breakfast they said…  No we don’t serve breakfast at this time.  We don’t serve breakfast unit 4 am.   So I had to get a $6 burger.

Off the the Enterprise rental returns… very fast as there was NO one there.   The bus was waiting for me and since I was the only on on the bus, we headed quickly for the airport.

After drop off,  at 4:10 found TSA security didn’t open until 4:30 am so I was 2nd in line and chatted to a nice couple who were going to Nicaragua to rent a sail boat for a week.  This was one empty airport!

Security screening was a snap as there were 5 lines open, with 4 people in line.  Coffee NOW please…..  shit, the small shops didn’t open for another 30 minutes (5 am) so they just tantalized us with the sell of brewing coffee…. what torcher.

Finally off to Houston, where  I saw these cool art work hanging from the ceiling.  It was so simple yet extremely cool   Randomly cut plastic sheets (1/4 to 3/8 inch thick) with different shades of color were heated, bent, and hung under a long yet narrow skylight.  This sunlight interacted with the plastic to light the edges, to highlight  the shape and detailing the edges.

What a neat idea!

Finally made it home about 6:15 pm.  It was raining, my cat missed me and I was so excited I almost had an orgasum .

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Woowaaa here.  I just did a spell check of this document and it before I published and the checker didn’t recognize the work orgasum.  How weird as it seems to know anything I throw at it.   I then checked the web for the proper spelling and found a whole untapped world of stuff about orgasums.  What some fun…. google orgasum.  There are youtube’s about orgamsums.  How weird it doesn’t spell check.

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Urban Dictionary: orgasum

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Folks I don’t make this shit  up…….

 This is the first weekend of the International Spoleto Festival.  

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From Wikipedia
Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the world’s major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi (the Festival of Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy. The annual 17-day event showcases both established and emerging artists in more than 120 performances of opera, dance, theater, classical music, and jazz.

When Italian organizers planned an American festival, they searched for a city that would offer the charm of Spoleto, Italy, and also its wealth of theaters, churches, and other performance spaces. Charleston was selected as the ideal location.
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 For YEARS, I viewed Spoleto as an inconvenience, just some art show happening downtown.   Every year,  I would hear about it daily on “Spoleto Today”  (PBS radio), read about it in the newspaper, see it on TV but had NO interest in it.   I avoided Spoletoas much as possible and the only time I actually ventured downtown during the 2.5 weeks of the show was with visiting guests.    Spoleto, who needs it?  Bah…Humbug he said with a scowl!!

It is surprising that now, I am a volunteer usher for the festival!  I just love Spoleto.  It changed when I because a volinteer usher.     I heard about volunteering, signed up about 3 years ago.   

I just have to dress smartly with a white shirt and tie, help guests to thier seats, be polite and show up early for that show..   How easy is that!  The advantage is I get to see lots of shows I would never normally select or even have an interest in seeing.    I getting some  “public exposure” of a good kind.   

I have been exposed to some great shows and real crap.   Yes, CRAP!   I felt sorry for those who had to pay.    Just ask me about the ancient Japanese sliding screen show.   Talk about not making a bit of sense!     Or the one person show (Japanese again) where the geisha turns out to be a guy dressed as a woman.   I wondered why the geisha gal seem so flat chested….    Maybe I should swear off Japanese performance….cant seem to understand them.

I have also seen some unbelievably good shows too.  The Italian Marionettes were fantastic.  Little puppets of all kinds which told a fantasy story in exactly the same way one would have seen it in the 1700’s.  The high tech entertainment of the past complete with dragons (fire breathing), marching army’s, witches, all wrapped up in a love story.    Sounds like something we would see today on HBO. 

So here is the deal…..   Over the next 2 weeks, I have about 8 shows that I am assigned to.   After I see them I’ll let you know what there were and if they were good or crap.  

I have one today, May 29th I’ll see Gallim Dance studio perform “I can see myself in your Pupil”   Huh? What the hell?  Hey, I didnt pick it, it was assigned to me by the staff.    Of the 8 shows, I only could choose 3 shows for my “wish list” and indicate to the staff I was available for assignment on other days.   Trouble is I can remember what I chose, but I KNOW I did not pick this one.    Exposure…just what I need.

Today, I did some extensive walking around the city people watching.   Tourists come to Charleston to check out the city, I go to Charleston to check out the tourists.   I think it was even busier today, because a Carnival Cruise ship was in port.  

Lots of walking therefore lots of pictures.    I have grouped them as much as possible.  I am going to try and go into Charleston city center (all of 8 miles away) to take pictures….  Enjoy.

These is a small arts show at the park.   Look closely at the painted pictures, especially the shrimp boats.    Surprisingly, they are photos of painting, printed on matted paper (to look like stretched canvas) put into a frame, and then the “artist” uses clear RTV to high light things such as rigging, cable, etc., different things on the print.  It really looks good, and is an easy way to make a print look like a painting…. so easy a caveman can do it!

I have been looking for an egg plate for a long time and purchased a beautiful ceramic red deviled egg plate from a vendor….      They had a bunch of different colors, so I just put the fake eggs on different trays, asked a few passing women for a group vote on which presentation (with the white and yellow eggs) looked the best.  The all chose the red one.   Bet they enjoyed spending my money.

I enjoy making deviled eggs and taking them to parties.  Easy to make, lots of my “secret” doctoring to the recipe and who doesn’t like deviled eggs?  I like competition and it is fun to see which plate empties first when other people also bring their egg resipes to a gathering.   I rarely take any home.

I started on a project I wanted to do for 2 years.  Converting my car to run on used cooling oil (a grease car).   I have a friend who can give me all the waste vegetable oil (WVO) I want.  I had the equipment and supplies for almost 2 years, designed a dedicated electronic control system, but for some reason I never got started.  I guess Pats plane threw off my time line…  Building a veggie car is the only reason I bought the diesel Mercedes (Sherman the German).

The conversion plan will happen in stages. 

1.   Get the basic system operational for testing.  No electronics (a simple switch system), no automation, use the 8 gal tank for WVO, the main 20 gal tank will remain diesel.
2.  If everything works well, and I have have a steady supply of WVO, I’ll build the electronics for system automation.
3.  Switch the tanks so the main car tank is used for cooking oil and the smaller 8 gal tank is used for diesel.
4.  Improve the filtration system of WVO, and set up a dedicated area for processing it.   I want to build a centrifuge to get it as particle free as possible before putting it into the car
5.  Improve cold weather operation of the system by adding pre-heaters in the fuel tank, insulating fuel lines, etc. 

My main focus is just getting it going for testing.   Most of the stages will have to wait until after I get the plane done.

I am using a fairly simple system.  It takes WVO, heats, filters it, then using electric solenoid valves turns switch from diesel fuel to WVO.  You must get the WVO up to at least 150 deg F so it flows easily for filtering and burning.   The trick with this system is to start and shut down the engine with pure diesel fuel (to clean the injectors and pump) and have a way to switch over to WVO after the system heats up, hence the solenoid valves.

I am using a diagram I found on the web and some of my own ideas from my research.

..Click on the diagram to view..

This is the space I have to work with.

The aluminum fuel tubing (I used 3/8″), heater core, filter and valves.

Installing the fuel lines was the worst part of the project and the dirtiest.

I was just filthy after this part of the project.

The liquid to liquid heater core is installed.  It takes hot water from the coolant system which flows through a 15 plate core which heats up the WVO.

I machined my own oil filter housing.  I didnt like the off the shelf type.

The system as installed.   My first focus is getting the car running again.  The diesel fuel/coolant system are operational  again, but I wont be able to start using WVO until I build the fuel tank. 

Here it is… my cardboard fuel tank.  I figure it will hold about 8 gal of WVO which well be good for about 160 miles.    This weekend, I’ll start on the fabrication of a real tank.

I need to get back to work on Pat’s plane….

I have been busy the last few days putting things together for a change.  Actually the work is getting kind of exciting!    I can actually see a path to the end and feel I am over the major hump an on a more secure path knowing what the hell I am doing.   Maybe it’s just a philological hump (frustration, overwhelming effort, working in unknown directions, etc), but  I am kind of jacked about getting this plane done.   

Whenever you are doing highly customized work, one is always faced with creative frustrations while in the exploration of new ideas and directions.  Just figuring out how to design nutplates and bond them in to the plane for hidden support of the GPS and other accessories a PITA.  As the customized features of pPod are slowly wrapped up,  I am moving in the direction of doing things which are easier and faster to accomplish because I have already done them a few times on other planes.

Today, I built on a controllable air door to increase cabin pressure from the NACA duct.  A flapper valve seemed like the best choice and easiest to make.    It has a silicon seal and a recess lever for an offset control handle.    It will be bonded into the NACA  inlet duct with a control handle in the front and back seat to allow a lot more air and into the cabin to increase cabin pressure when desired (such as flying through rain or in really cold weather).  It works super well in my plane and wanted to transfer this feature to pPod.

Yesterday the nut plate supports for the LED side light, iPod music player, lighting dimmer control and Garmin GPS mounts were bonded into the plane.

My shipment of #14  Adel clamps arrived and which were taken apart and re-bent into a rectangular shape to support both hoses with the same clamp.  It is cheaper than using two clamps and will reduce the heat impact on the click bond fastener.    Besides it looks way cooler and more professional. 

The oil hose routing and attachment to fuselage is done.  Tomorrow a bunch of components will be glassed then all the control push/pull on the port side will be routed and mounted.     The overall philosophy is to install everything into the plane prior to wiring, disassemble everything, paint the interior, then remount everything  THEN you wire the plane.   Lots to do, but it is starting to get exciting!

I was thinking this morning about the work on the plane this morning while on my walk/run. 

Imagine buying a really nice house.   You enjoy for just a week and then decide to make some changes.  A contractor is found.   You decide on a MASSIVE overhaul.   The first thing done is to completely gut the house completely, tear out all the sheet rock, wiring, plumbing, doors, trim, bathrooms, fixtures, floors every freaking thing!  Your are then back to just a shell.   A structure of which looks complete from the outside, hollow and empty on the inside.    The goal is to put it all back together in an high tech way with custom everything, with the latest big screen home entertainment system, computer controls, custom trim and furniture.  THE MOST CUSTOME AND ADVANCED HOUSES OF ITS TYPE IN THE WORLD!    As we used to say in the Navy, “I shit you not!” .

This is the challenge I have given myself.    Completely disassembling a flying plane back to just an empty structure.    Rebuild this shell into a LongEZ the likes of which the world has never seen.     This plane will extremely fast, most likely the fastest EZ in the world.  The clean cowl, custom made P1 Prototypes low drag oil sump, remote fuel sumps, and very low drag air frame means SPEED!   The electronics on the plane will include the most advaced equipment avaliable   I know of no other canard in the world flying with ADS-B or even ARINC-429 .    As a matter of fact, most builders have never even heard of these aviation communication protocols before or if they have, dont fully understand the terms.   I recently read that only 1000 planes in the world are flying with ADS-B.  

I dont know the exact date this bird will fly again, but fly she will.    I’ll be at the controls for the first flight of a new generation of canard’s.   The world’s fastest and most advanced LongEZ  ever created.   I can’t wait…….